Fulfilment of a Grand Prophecy - Hazrat Ahmad’s Challenge to John Alexander Dowie — Page 22
22. Fulfillment of a Grand Prophecy. That these charges were valid is clear from the circumstance that the whole body of his disciples turned against him and his own son and wife divulged his secret doings. Thus within a few months he lost his honor, wealth and the whole body of his followers, and through disclosures made by his own disciples the world gazed upon the dark picture of his inner life. Dowie sought to regain his followers by again appearing among them, but to his utter disappointment he found that in the city where thousands stood and kneeled at his bidding once, there was not a single person to receive him. He went to courts for the possession of Zion and its money, but met with despair on all sides. He appealed to his followers, but no one listened to his voice. Physically he was in the most distressful condition during the whole of this time. He could not walk or stand but was removed from one place to another by his Negro attendants. Thus the three things in which he prided himself, viz. , health, wealth and followers, were all gone, and from a highly prosperous condition he was reduced to a most distressful one within the short space of a few months. Sorrow and suffering encompassed him all around and he found his hell in this very life. His disasters reached their climax. Soon after this he became a raving maniac, and this was the last stage of his life upon this earth. And the fulfillment of this grand prophecy is now completed with his death. . Great was the fortune, which Dowie attained, but greater still was his adversity. Great was his rise but greater still was his fall. He claimed that he was Elijah and forerunner of Christ and that he was divinely inspired but he was bitterly denounced by the whole body of his own followers who repudiated his alleged divine powers. He said that, as the messenger of Jesus. Christ, he was free from sin and that his life was a pattern for others, but his most intimate friends and his own son and wife revealed the dark side of the picture of his life and showed that while he preached one thing he himself did the opposite. . He asserted that disease was a sin and claimed to heal it by his prayer, but he himself was laid by the worst diseases, paralysis and insanity, and neither his own prayers nor those of his followers could heal him. He asserted that the Muslims would perish before his eyes, but he himself perished before the eyes of the Promised Messiah, in accordance with the latter's clear prophecy. Never was man dashed from such prosperity to such adversity. . The Divine judgment has been given in the case of Dowie and the prophecy regarding his end had been clearly fulfilled. It foretold for him an end of great sorrow and suffering within the lifetime and before the eyes of the Promised. Messiah. "He shall leave the world before any eyes with great sorrow and torment”: such were the plain and definite words of the prophecy and how clearly they have been fulfilled! The words were uttered and published at a time when Dowie was at the height of prosperity, and no one could think that he would fall so low. But Almighty God knew the end that was in store for him and He also knew that his end must come in the lifetime of the Promised Messiahas. No mortal could know these things. God only knew them and He revealed these deep secrets of the future to His. Messenger. Some time ago when we referred to this prophecy in connection with the disasters that befell Dowie before his end came, an American newspaper remarked that there was nothing extraordinary in the prophecy as any man could have safely prophesied that Dowie would ultimately come to ruin. It is easy to make such an assertion but it is impossible to prove it. How long did Dowie prosper in face of the bitterest opposition from the American press and public?. In spite of what the newspapers wrote about him and in spite of what the people generally thought and said of him, Dowie was daily becoming richer and making more and more followers. It was in spite of the opposition that he became the owner of a large city and twenty million dollars of money. IN spite of the strong words in which his character was depicted in the American Press, his